Human Body Drawing: Lesson 11: Academic Modeling & Personal Style
MODELING THE BODY IN THE ACADEMIC STYLE
Let us continue with modeling by trying to study the progressive development of the rendering of values, contrast, and atmosphere in the academic style. The terms "academic drawing" or "academic painting" derive their origin from the tendency that artists of the last century—Ingres in particular—had to apply themselves to drawing and painting with absolute realism, transcribing the shapes and values presented by the model exactly and coldly. Nowadays, it is considered that this style is only suitable for studies.
It is the style that interests us here; it will allow us to consolidate our basic knowledge of body modeling and to acquire the necessary craft to study and later find a personal style.
Let us recall, in this regard, the fundamental rules for obtaining a perfect, real, and therefore academic model. Let us recall that rendering a value means comparing, observing, and focusing all one's attention on a given value, on a determined tone noticed on the model, until it is engraved in one's memory in such a way as to be able to compare it to another. For this, the first rule is to see the light and draw it, after having seen and analyzed the model as a set of surfaces modeled by the light, while striving to always see patches and not linear contours; finally, one must remember that values, construction, harmonization, and rendering must be done progressively but simultaneously; everything must be worked on as if it were an image appearing little by little while showing its details progressively.
Do not forget that your values will be more accurate if you study and compare the contrast of the tones between them. Take advantage of the law of simultaneous contrasts, that is to say, "white is all the more white as what surrounds it is darker"; do not forget either the possibility of provoking contrasts by intensifying a tone close and opposite to another, so that one or the other acquires more relief. Finally, you have the possibility of creating an atmosphere, of drawing it by blending the contours, by accentuating the sharpness of the foregrounds and the lightness of the background (1).
ACCENTUATE THE VALUES OF THE HEAD, ARMS, AND LEGS
In studying the nude from life, I have been able to note that the range of values is almost always more accentuated on the head and extremities than on the torso. Indeed, with rare exceptions, the head and hands are always slightly darker—very little, of course—than the rest of the body; let us note that this slight obscurity is progressive, that is to say, it increases as one descends from the arm to the hand, from the knee to the foot. More generally, the effect is natural if one takes into account that the forearms and hands on the one hand, the legs and feet on the other, as well as the head, are the parts of the body most exposed to the air and the sun.
LET US REASON ON EXAMPLES
The graphic summary of these notions is given to you by the following figures drawn in the academic style, as well as by this study by Mariano Fortuny; notice on each of these illustrations the importance acquired by the complex set of muscles, the place, and the shape of each of them; but suitably brought into relief, they give life to the representation of the body (Fig. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12).
THE PERSONAL STYLE
It is still a little early to talk about a personal style, that is to say, a particular way of drawing that is unique to you, that distinguishes your works from those of others. But since we have reached the latest notions on the study of the human body, we are going to address this very important question, without, however, going into depth. As you know, style is the particular character that the artist transmits to their works. To make this particular character evident, the artist gives their personal interpretation of the model; they draw its shape and modeling according to their way of being and thinking, following their experience, their state of mind, while also taking into account the styles of their era. To this personal interpretation of form and modeling, the artist then adds their favorite way of doing things—their "facture" (execution/brushwork)—which is a function of a determined technique and the process they intend to use.
Form, modeling, and execution are, therefore, the three factors that the artist uses to make their own style appear. Let us briefly study the possibilities they offer.
FORM
Form is, among these factors, the one that lends itself most to a conventional interpretation. One can lengthen it, widen it, harden it, soften it, idealize it, etc. In any case, it is evident that "working" this factor assumes a modification of the normal appearance of the model, that is to say, a distortion, which can lead to a badly understood originality, or to one of those styles that annul the faculty of contemplation, giving birth in its place to the agonizing need to question. Stylize the form at the right moment, do not try to get ahead of events; wait until you feel the need to distort, which will occur when the time comes, when you master the academic drawing and when you have drawn so many bodies with accurate proportions that the urgent need to seek new forms of artistic expression will arise in you.
Follow in this the example of the great Masters, El Greco for example, who was the first to dare to stylize and distort the human body. It goes without saying that he did not do it the first time; it is enough to compare one of the first paintings he painted upon arriving in Toledo, "The Martyrdom of Saint Maurice," with any other later one, for example "The Baptism of Christ," to realize that these beautiful disproportions were not the work of a day, but the result of continuous and progressive research (fig. 13 and 14).
MODELING
Modeling, just like form, can be (in the model) perfectly normal, academic. But you, as a creator artist of your own style, can see it and interpret it in your own way, in accordance with your character, with the feeling and the message of the work. Thus, you can accentuate the contrast and even harden it to the point of arriving at a play of whites and blacks; or rather soften it and give it something very delicate. To accentuate your style, you can also modify the atmosphere factor and draw with precision, the sharpness of a sharp, hard, cutting style... or exaggerate the effect by blending the forms, leaving them blurry, as if seen through frosted glass (fig. 15 and 16).
Figures 13 and 14: — The Martyrdom of Saint Maurice and The Baptism of Christ, two famous paintings by El Greco. (Escorial and Prado Museum.)
THE EXECUTION — TECHNIQUE AND PROCEDURES
The execution depends first on the technique — quality of the line, the shading, the gradients — then on the process used by the artist: lead pencil, charcoal, red chalk (sanguine), and even pen (reed, brush, or bamboo). Be that as it may, the execution constitutes an important element in the determination of style: it is the stroke, the character of the line or the brushstroke; it is, for example, the combination of rough paper with a soft pencil, or a gradient with short strokes obtained with the lead of the pencil placed flat or on its tip, etc. (fig. 17).
